The invention relates to flow rate meters. More particularly the invention relates to a flow rate meter for measuring the rate of flow of a gas, especially the inducted air for an internal combustion engine. The invention especially relates to an air flow rate meter including a temperature-dependent resistance which is exposed to the wire flow and which may be heated. In known hot air or hot film air flow rate meters, sometimes called anemometers, the measuring wire or a film is subjected to soiling due to airborne particles which causes a fairly rapid change in the measuring characteristics resulting in an erroneous measured signal. Furthermore, a hot film sensor has relatively poor thermal characteristics due to the thermal inertia of the carrier on which the film is placed.